This past week was my last change to finish edits on Book 1 of TGS (Chapters 1-7) and it’s been rough! For the most part, these are all fairly minor edits—we’re talking dialogue adjustments, consistent punctuation, sizing up the font slightly to match Penguin Randomhouse’s standard (this particular task took two solid weeks of work)—but I wanted to save this last stretch for adjusting the artwork. I’m trying to limit myself to panels that I know have communicated the wrong message to readers in the past or panels that have been bugging me for a really long time. For instance, this particular panel received many comments about Jasper’s “bedroom eyes,” which is 100% not what I intended:

RIP Horny Jasper

Nevertheless, I’ve been fighting off the temptation to redraw everything, and my inner critic is at top volume this week. Please know that this is not a call for sympathy or reassurance—I know that having to actively engage with your old art would be a rough time for anyone, and I’m doing my best to approach this task with an art restorer’s hand, tweaking only where necessary to ensure that the original intention of the piece comes through, rather than painting over the whole thing in a panic and ending up with this situation.